News / Bulker grounds in Suez Canal, prompting Ever Given flashbacks

Photo: Suez Canal Authority

The world held its breath, briefly, today as Greek bulk carrier Glory grounded close to the western bank of the Suez Canal for several hours.

The 225m vessel, believed to be travelling from Ukraine to China, was travelling southbound in a convoy of 21 ships when it grounded near al-Qantara, according to Norwegian ship agency Leth, which tweeted about the incident at shortly after 8am local time.

“Glory grounded while joining a southbound convoy near to al-Qantara,” the tweet read. “Suez Canal Authority tugs are trying to refloat the vessel.”

The same account reported the vessel had been refloated two hours later.

It was not long before parallels were drawn to the 2021 grounding of the Ever Given, which blocked the canal for six days and generated billions of dollars in costs for the maritime industry, insurers said, as well as direct losses of as much as $15m a day for Egypt itself.

“Aw s**t, here we go again,” tweeted one account in response to the grounding.

However today’s incident was rather different, it happened in a straight section of the canal, north of the Great Bitter Lake, and some 75km from where the crew and pilots on the much larger 20,124 teu container giant – almost twice as long as Glory – lost control navigating a sweeping curve in high winds during a sandstorm.